SLEEP DEBT & HEADACHES: A PRIMER

Just like in your financial life, your sleep life shouldn’t suffer from debt. But signs point to sleep deprivation being a real problem: It is estimated that 40% of Americans don’t get enough sleep.⁽¹⁾

Over time, this chronic loss of sleep can add up to “sleep debt.”⁽²⁾

What’s that mean for headache sufferers? Possibly, more headaches, since lack of sleep can be both a headache and migraine trigger. Learn more about sleep debt here, plus tips on how to head off that head pain.

Sleep Debt Math

Think of it this way: You “spend” mental and physical energy all week, so you need to “pay” your body back with the recommended 7 to 9 hours⁽²⁾ of sleep per night. Sleep debt is the difference between the amount of sleep you need and the amount of sleep you actually get.⁽³⁾ For instance: Let’s say you’re missing 2 hours of sleep you need each work night, so when the weekend rolls around, you’ve got 10 hours of sleep debt.⁽⁴⁾ Sleeping two extra hours each day on the weekend still leaves you with 6 hours of sleep debt,⁽⁴⁾ and trying to repay it all on the weekend could even lead to a “weekend headache”.

Adding Up the Cost

Besides potentially increasing headaches, sleep debt can affect other parts of your life – including your memory and mood⁽⁵⁾. More research is needed, but long-term, sleep loss has been shown to have health impacts, including increased risk of cardiovascular disease, obesity and diabetes.^(2,3)

What Can You Do?

Luckily, there are some straightforward ways to get some much-needed sleep debt recovery.⁽⁴⁾

Try adding in an extra hour or so of sleep each night of the week, so that a small remaining debt can be finished off on the weekend with, say, an extra 3 hours.⁽⁶⁾

Chronic sleep debt can’t be repaid easily in a normal week,⁽⁴⁾ so taking a vacation with a light schedule can provide that necessary chance to kill the alarm and sleep each night until you awake naturally the next day.⁽⁶⁾

Once you’ve found out how much sleep is right for you, stick to a routine and make it a part of your daily life to avoid falling into another cycle of sleep debt.⁽⁶⁾

Check out our tips to help you create a healthy sleep pattern, and maintain good sleep hygiene throughout your week. If you feel as though irregular sleep may be triggering your headaches, keeping a headache diary can help identify whether or not this is a culprit.